I report on the business of sports for Forbes' SportsMoney group. My sports interests range from baseball and hockey to cricket and Formula One, though I specialize mainly in college football and basketball. Studying sports business interests me both as a writer and a sports fan, and I've found that digging through financial reports is often just as enjoyable as combing a box score. Reach me at csmith@forbes.com and follow me on Twitter @ChrisSmith813.

The NHL's Best And Worst Teams For The Buck

The NHL lockout is a painful time for the sport’s diehard fans, especially because it comes just seven seasons after the league’s last work stoppage. Team owners are demanding a larger share of the financial pie, citing high player costs as a primary reason why 18 teams lost money last season. With those player costs in mind, we wondered which NHL teams have been the best (and worst) per payroll dollar spent since the last lockout.

To find out, we compared each team’s player-cost-to-win ratio to the league average over the last seven seasons. Player costs include salaries, benefits and bonuses, and we weigh playoff victories twice as heavily as regular season wins. Each team’s final score represents how much better or worse it performed compared to the average team since the last lockout. A score of 120 means the team outperformed the league average by 20% in terms of games won per payroll dollar spent; a score of 80 represents cost efficiency 20% worse than the average team.

The Sharks were the best team for the buck over the last seven seasons, generating a score of 125 (or 25% more efficient player spending than the average team). San Jose has made a habit of dominating the regular season and making deep playoff runs, the sort of annual success that most teams can only dream of. The team also hasn’t broken the bank to do it, averaging an annual payroll of $49 million, just beneath the league average $51 million.

The second-best team per dollar spent was the Detroit Red Wings, who rank just behind the Sharks with a score of 124. Detroit is perhaps the league’s best example of how high player costs can pay off on the ice. The team has ranked among the top ten teams in player spending in five of the last seven seasons, but heavy spending helped create a superstar lineup that is consistently one of the NHL’s top teams. Since the 2004-05 lockout the Red Wings have collected 11 playoff series wins, made three trips to the Western Conference Finals and collected a Stanley Cup victory in 2007-08.

Another way to make the top of the list is to succeed on the ice despite low player costs. That’s how Nashville ranks fourth on our list. Prior to recently giving wealthy contracts to goalie Pekka Rinne (7 years, $49 million) and defenseman Shea Weber (14 years, $110 million), the Predators were among the league’s lowest spenders. The team still managed to post 90 or more points and make the playoffs in all but one of the last seven seasons, leading to cost efficiency 20% better than the average team’s.

The other two best teams for the buck are No. 3 Pittsburgh (123) and No. 5 Anaheim (115). The five teams have made five Stanley Cup Finals appearances, winning three of them, since the last lockout.

In perhaps the least surprising outcome of all, the Toronto Maple Leafs ranked dead last with a score of 77, or 23% worse than the average team. Unlike the Red Wings, the Leafs’ high player costs have not translated to strong on-ice play. While Toronto has ranked among the top 12 in player costs in five of the last seven seasons, it failed to make the playoffs even once in that time.

In fact, the five worst teams for the buck – rounded out by the Blue Jackets (81), Oilers (82), Islanders (87) and Flames (89) – can thank general poor play for their low ranks. The five teams have combined for seven playoff appearances since the last lockout, six of which ended with first round exits. The one exception is the Oilers, which went to the Stanley Cup finals in 2005-06, but the team hasn’t finished better than fourth in the Northwest Division since.

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